melvania

Attention. Big news coming up. You listening? You better be.

Our web server is due for an upgrade, and this will be happening roughly eight hours from now (i.e. whenever Darrin gets out of bed in the morning). So from 8am AUCST onward, expect errors trying to load any of our websites.

I did two big things today.

1. I un-archived everything that was archived, because the archive list wasn't showing up anyway. So now you can see entries back to the start of 2003. 412 entries total, not counting the one I'm writing right now.

2. To your left you'll see a menu called "Blog categories." So if you were wondering "Hmm, how long did it take Mel to get her permanent residence?" you can see it all at once. Or if you want to keep tabs on what I'm sewing or knitting this week, you can see that too.

I've had the Superman theme song in my head all day. Get it out. Please.

So. It's payday. And I went shopping this morning. I got lots of meat, lots of dairy, lots of fruit & veggies, and very little else. And this is all we'll be eating for the next...who knows. I've made a few half-hearted attempts to get rid of the carbs, but this time I'm serious. I'm sick of getting headaches every time I go overboard, not knowing whether I'll keep any food down when I have one.

So no more chocolate, no more soft drinks, no more chips, no more pies, no more ice cream (except the sugarless one I make myself). Nothing but fresh, REAL food from here on.

Today was a bit cooler than it's been the last week, so I finally did some housework. Did the dishes, brought in the clean clothes (they're still sitting in the basket though), cleaned off the paved area at the back of the house. That last one was the big one. Now that Caleb's crawling, he tends to follow us outside when we open the back door, so I really wanted to get all the gardening stuff away from there. Then once Darrin got home, we decided to move the barbecue over a bit so we could move our bench to where that was. So now we sort of have a little living area out there too. We could almost have a party out there.

Now we just need to get Caleb some outdoor toys because I just threw out all the stuff he used to play with out there....

So remember those Baby Beehinds I said I bought in an auction online? I was hanging them on the clothesline today and noticed the leg elastic on one leg of the orange one was all stretched out and pretty much worthless. Great. Just spent $50 to get three and one of them is already falling apart, I thought.

And then I thought: why not ask on Oz Cloth Nappies if anyone's ever had to fix one? So I did. And two people were kind enough to point me to this site, which shows how to do it. So that's what I'll be doing as soon as I get some orange thread on Thursday. Unless I decide I can't wait that long and use a colour I already have.

So I ripped out the old elastic, only to re-read the page later and realise I could've just left it in there. Ah well, at least I know for next time.

Of course it occurred to me AFTER all this that my mom had given me a few ideas how to fix one of the ones I made, back when she & my dad were visiting in September. And it was probably pretty similar to what that page says anyway. But it's good to have pictures to go with it.

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Seriously, he typed that.

Step one, get the baby to sleep.

Yeah, so one of the patterns I bought yesterday was a pajama pattern. Kid to adult sizes. Of course if I cut out the smallest kids pattern, it becomes much more difficult to use the same pattern later for a larger kids size. At least the adult size is a separate one, and Darrin & I wear a similar size.

Anyway. I found some flannelette (minus the 'ette' for the Americans) in Big W the other day. They just sell big chunks of it there, not on a roll or anything where you can get a custom length. So on the label it had some suggested uses - cot sheet, baby blanket, toddler pajamas...hmm, I like that idea. Bought the pattern yesterday, started pinning out the pieces this afternoon after Caleb went to sleep (because the only uncluttered surface in the house at the moment is the low table in the lounge). And whaddya know, the piece wasn't quite long enough for all the pieces. So off to Big W to get a second bit.

And in the instructions and on the back of the pattern envelope I see mention of "interfacing." If I've ever heard of this before, I wasn't paying attention, so off I go to Google. Ah, so it's the stuff they put in the edging of clothes that falls apart so I end up pulling it out. And possibly also what I burned onto the bottom of an iron once. Supposedly it makes a stronger garment if you use it in certain places. But I kinda don't feel like going back to Spotlight and getting interfacing, especially since it'll have to wait for payday anyway (Thursday).

So. I've got enough fabric with some to spare, and I've got all the pieces pinned, now I just need to cut them out. And decide about the interfacing, of course.

Oh, also, this project is going to be my first one with buttons. So I get to try out the button hole thingy on my sewing machine. Eventually.

About a VIP members only sale at Spotlight this weekend. Sewing patterns 50% off, among other things. And a $5 voucher to use if you spend more than $25.

So I took the bait. I bought my first ever sewing patterns and some bits to go with them, and after all the discounts, ended up paying just under $25 total. Total savings: about $22. Wow. I didn't realise till now just how much it was.

But I've forgotten exactly what, so I'll just start from the beginning and hope I remember.

Woke up. Caleb stirred, so I fed him, and he went back to sleep. Darrin got up. Then I got up. Got dressed, read my emails, web forums, RSS stuff. Tried to wake Caleb while Darrin was in the shower, but it's always the same: when I want him to wake up, he won't, and when I want him to stay asleep, he wakes up.

Finally gave up trying to wake him up and just picked him up. He dozed on my shoulder for a couple more minutes, then gradually woke up as we were getting ready to head out. By the time we got out to the car he was pretty well awake, and grinned at Darrin when he turned around to talk to him.

Drove off to the school to drop Darrin off. Took Caleb out of the car seat and changed his nappy in the boot (trunk). Put him back in his seat and took off heading for Goodwood (just south of the city centre) for the monthly Homebirth Network coffee morning.

Drove down Main North Road, turned onto the ring route, on to Port Road, and West Terrace, where I actually for once was in the correct lane (just - had to change at the last minute) to get onto Goodwood Road instead of Anzac Highway.

And just after South Terrace, I remembered today was Big Day Out at the Adelaide Showground, which is just off Goodwood Road. So they'd dropped the speed limit for a few blocks to 25 kph (umm...15 mph I think, pretty darn slow, anyway). Turned off onto the side street, into the parking lot for the community centre where the meetings are held, parked. Got out of the car, got Caleb out of the car and into the pram, looked for my keys...where are my keys? Oh, I DID leave them in the ignition. Fortunately I hadn't shut all the doors yet, so I climbed in the back seat and reached up front to get them. Phew.

Walked up to the nearest bakery to get a chocolate croissant for breakfast. Counted my change. Realised I needed more change than I had to pay for the croissant and the $2.50 donation to go toward hall hire for the meeting, so I crossed the road and went to the ATM. There were four young guys there getting money, presumably for BDO. They finished, I stepped up and got money out. Turned around, and the lights were already red and people were crossing at the pedestrian crossing, and there was no way I'd get there before it turned green again, so since there was no traffic either way where I was standing, I crossed there.

Went back to the community centre. Saw Rosey (one of the midwives) in the carpark and she said hi, and how much bigger Caleb is getting. We went inside. It was early, so there weren't many people there yet. I set up camp at the edge of the room so I could feed Caleb, but he was too busy looking around at everything, so we waited a bit on that.

Slowly people turned up. The meeting was officially supposed to start at 10, but nothing formal happened till about 11. There was a little six-month-old girl on her tummy on a blanket, on the wood floor, and when she saw Caleb she had a big smile & started dragging herself across the floor to get to him...or his toy, I'm not sure. But she kept trying to touch him, so I think it was him she was after. They swapped toys, and swapped again, and Caleb crawled off in search of whatever else he could find.

And I was almost considering heading off already, because Caleb was looking tired (after all, I'd woken him up earlier than he'd have liked). But then I saw Anna come in, and I decided to stay. Her boy is 15 days older than Caleb and we email occasionally. She's not as much of a net junkie as I am, so sometimes we go a couple months without emailing. But anyway. It was good to see them.

And then the formal stuff started, and a few of the women shared birth stories, but I didn't hear all of them because I was watching Caleb and feeding him and the microphone they had was kinda quiet this time. Around noon they wrapped things up, and about fifteen minutes later one of the organisers got on the microphone again and said "They've just told me the fire alarm is going to go off in a minute but not to worry about it, so I thought I should let you all know." Went over to the snack table and had a couple things (somebody brought a raspberry coconut thing that was pretty nice). Anna grabbed the last two slices of cucumber for the boys. Caleb seemed to like it (it was his first time with cucumber).

Anna said they (she, her boy, and a friend) were going to a shop and asked if I wanted to come along. So I said yes. We started packing up, and on the way out I grabbed my membership card (which gives me discounts on lots of things).

Checked my mobile phone on my way out the door. Message from Darrin saying "When you get home the network will be broken, power cycle the switches." Okay, I can do that. We walk up to the shop, which is basically just the other side of the car park, but the entrance is on the street side. Interesting stuff in this shop. It's called Waste Not Want Not, and I saw it earlier this morning when I went to the ATM, and thought it was just an op shop. But it's not. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it. I think eclectic is the word. They've got a bit of everything - some health food shop things, some clothes, some books, some toys, some novelty items (like paper cups with noses on them, so when you tip them up to drink, it looks like you have a fake nose).

We finished up in there and went our separate ways. I got Caleb in the car, the pram in the boot, and myself in the driver's seat. Started the car, turned on the air conditioner, drove toward home through the annoying traffic again. As I was slowing down for the red light at South Terrace, Caleb was "singing" (that's what we call the noise he makes in the car when he's falling asleep). And by the time I'd stopped completely, he was out. And slept the whole way home.

And going north on West Terrace, I ended up in the wrong lane and went onto North Terrace instead of Port Road. Ah well, I know how to get out of this, I thought. Got up to King William Street and the lights were red. Sat in the left turn lane till the guy ahead of me got annoyed, and for some reason I followed him instead of staying in the lane. So after four years living here, and dreading the thought, I finally drove the entire length of North Terrace, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be.

Turned on to the ring route again, and can't remember all the names of streets, but I got back to Main North Road. And whaddya know, up at the five-way junction, I got in the wrong lane AGAIN and kept on Main North when I meant to get on Port Wakefield road. Did a dogleg at...umm...shut up Darrin, I'm thinking. It was Montague, I think. Whatever it was, it got me back to Port Wakefield road, and I know that's maybe kind of a silly way to do it, but I don't like Main North Road. Anyway. Got home, Caleb woke up almost as soon as I turned the car off (because of that stupid auto-door-locking motor that tries to lock the doors and fails). Came inside, fed him, thought he was going to go back to sleep, but nope. Changed his nappy, sat down with him again, but he didn't want to feed. Turned on the air conditioner and kept trying, but it didn't matter what I did, he wasn't happy. Finally he settled down & had a feed, then he got down on the floor and played for a few minutes, and then I noticed his nappy leaking. Ah, so that was part of the grumpiness. Cleaned him up, cleaned the floor up, and then he proceeds to do more straight on the carpet (I hadn't put another nappy on him yet). Cleaned THAT up. Took all the soiled things to the nappy bucket.

Cooked myself some lunch. Ate a bit. Got back in the car, went to Big W, bought Darrin a birthday present, went to pick him up from work (with the leftover birthday cake that somebody bought for him today). Came home, gave him his birthday present, fed Caleb, ordered pizza, watched Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

Got Caleb off to sleep, sat down here to blog, and here I am. Yeah, I still can't remember what I was going to blog about, but I've already blogged heaps trying to remember what it was.

Maybe it was this. There was a blurb on the radio this morning about how x percent of Aussie drivers admit to having lost their cool in the car with their kids. Umm, this is news exactly how? Are they making out that this is a bad thing? I'm not sure it is. Okay, yes, it's not very nice watching someone lose their temper (or losing it yourself), but how is holding it in any better? At least you're releasing the tension instead of letting it cause you ulcers, headaches, anxiety disorders, or other stress related illnesses. And your kids get to see that you're human too, and even Mum & Dad have bad days sometimes. So long as they say "I'm sorry if I scared you back there, I was having a bad day and I just lost control of myself for a while."